Historical timeline
of GBJ

The Global Business Journalism program was founded on September 17, 2007, as a pioneering partnership between Tsinghua University, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), and Bloomberg News. It emerged as the first English-language graduate business journalism program on the Chinese mainland and remains the only business journalism master's program in that region. This strategic initiative addressed a critical gap: the need for trained professionals who could explain China's increasingly complex role in the global economy to audiences worldwide.

The first cohorts, starting in 2007, enrolled roughly 40 students per year, approximately 20 Chinese and 20 international students, creating a genuinely multicultural learning environment from inception. Rick Dunham, a former White House correspondent and National Press Club president, joined as co-director alongside Chinese academic Nailene Chou Wiest, establishing a pattern of bicultural leadership that continues today. Bloomberg professor Lee Miller became a core faculty member, teaching since the program's founding.

By 2025, the program had:
- Educated over 550 international students from over 70 nations across 6 continents.
- Placed at least 20 graduates at Bloomberg News, with over 80% of those being women.
- Earned over 100 Bloomberg Market Concepts certifications.
- Established the world's largest university Bloomberg terminal lab.
- Received accreditation recognition from the US-based Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC).